Skoda's latest is Fab

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the Fabia is the rock upon which Skoda builds its church. Without this model, there would be no budget for vehicles like the wacky Roomster, the dashing Octavia and the spacious Superb. Launched in 2000, it was certainly a world apart from any compact car the Czech company had ever produced before. Designed by the stylist responsible for the Bentley Continental GT, this spacious supermini offered a simple recipe.

As well as being very well screwed together, it was also one of the longest cars in its class and had the interior space efficiency to capitalise on those extra inches. At the time, anything much larger would have strayed into the next class up - Golf, Astra and Focus family hatchback territory – so it had the supermini market pretty much taped, if space was a priority and you didn’t have deep pockets. Since then, Renault’s Clio has muscled in on this formula and Skoda responded with the second generation Fabia, now facelifted in the guise we look at here.

As promising as the basic Fabia formula might seem, the notion of big car, small engine is rarely a recipe for fun. In this instance, it’s remarkable what a difference a few bhp make. The Fabia is actually offered with four 1.2-litre petrol engines. Let’s start with the non-turbo ones. There’s a 60bhp 6-valve unit (yes, this is a three cylinder engine) that should be avoided unless you’re really cash-strapped or there’s a 70bhp 12-valve engine that’s significantly more satisfying. Where the 60bhp unit struggles when the car is loaded, the 70bhp has enough about it to carry the day. It’ll get to 60mph in 14.4 seconds and hit a top speed of 102mph and while those aren’t standout figures, there’s an enthusiasm and honesty to this powerplant that is extremely rewarding. If you want the Estate model (that commands a premium of around 500 over the equivalent 5-door hatch), then you’ll need to go for the 70bhp variant.

"If you can stretch to the punchier engines, you’ll have one of the best budget superminis money can buy.”